


you love me so well

by jamesjoyce



Category: Free!
Genre: Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-06
Updated: 2015-10-06
Packaged: 2018-04-25 02:04:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4942519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamesjoyce/pseuds/jamesjoyce
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Rin looks back and waves, Haru waves back. </p><p>Or, Rin and Haru in five different cities.</p>
            </blockquote>





	you love me so well

**Author's Note:**

> this is for mia, who yelled back when i yelled at her about rh. you're the real mvp. 
> 
> this is so gross and cliched and overdone i'm sorry @world.

“You love me so well, and in a way that brings you to me. Again and again.”  
\-- Simone de Beauvoir, _Letters To Sartre_  


**I. Tokyo**

Rin leaves for Australia in a few hours, and this time Haru is going to watch him go. 

They’re both good at pretending, but Haru knows that neither of them are asleep. It’s like they’re both waiting for the other person to say something, anything. Haru is at a loss for what he wants, but also for what Rin wants him to say. 

Haru has never been sure how to reach out to Rin, even when they’re standing right next to each other. He doesn’t want Rin to take this as rejection, but he knows that Rin has before, and will again. Bridging the gap that always seems to exist between them is something that takes work, sometimes agonizingly slow work. Even after all these years it is something that has to be built stone by stone, but Haru forces himself to try anyway. 

Rin is worth the effort, every time. 

Haru’s voice ends up being what shatters the silence that settled between them. “You’ll call this time, right?” he asks. He’s surprised himself by the fact that he had to be the one to ask, but this is a question that has been building for weeks. He wants to know what he can expect, to know what he has to prepare himself for this time. 

Rin shifts, the blankets rustling as he turns to Haru to grin. “As soon as you set up Skype, I’ll call you guys as often as I can. I swear.” 

Haru thinks of letters not addressed to him, of races, and Rin running away from him again and again. Looking at Rin’s face, his smile bright even if it’s only illuminated by the streetlights outside, he feels unafraid. 

Haru reaches out and grabs Rin’s hand, threading their fingers together. Rin’s whole body stiffens for a moment before he squeezes back. They fall asleep like that, fingers laced. In the morning Haru allows himself to let go, helps carry Rin’s luggage and then watches him him go. When Rin looks back and waves, Haru waves back. 

**II. Rome**

Haru hadn’t let himself think about it, but he had been almost afraid that Australia was going to chew Rin up and spit him out again. Rin is a different person now--older, better, someone who had visited the land of his regrets with Haru a year earlier--but Haru had still worried. 

Looking at Rin now, Haru knows that he was stupid to worry. There’s no trace of unhappiness, no worry lines on Rin’s face. Haru isn’t too blinded by his own happiness this time, either. He isn’t a kid anymore and Rin is definitely fine. The knowledge of that fills Haru’s whole body with warmth. 

“What?” Rin asks, when he notices Haru studying him. “Is there something on my face?” 

“No,” Haru says. 

Haru doesn’t know what comes over him. Maybe it’s the foreign city, or the way the lights twinkle above them, or the fact that Rin is so bright and beautiful, but Haru reaches out his hand to cup Rin’s cheek. Before Rin can ask what he’s doing Haru closes the space between them, lifting himself on his toes to do so. It’s a small, chaste kiss, but even so Haru’s glad that they’re in a corner of the cafe where no one is looking at them. 

When Haru pulls away, Rin is bright red. “Uh. Um,” he stammers, running a hand through his hair to try to cover up his embarrassment. Haru’s glad that it doesn’t seem to work very well. Rin’s pink cheeks are cute. “I don’t think you got whatever was on my face off it.” 

Rin drags Haru to what he says is the Trevi Fountain once they’re done with their gelato. Haru can admire the aesthetic beauty of the fountain, just like he can most things in Rome, but he doesn’t understand what’s so special about it. The water isn’t even that alluring, full of coins and who knows what else. When Rin holds up a coin in front of his face, Haru just stares. 

“What?” he asks finally when Rin doesn’t put it down. 

“There’s a legend,” Rin says slowly, carefully, running his fingers around the edge of his own coin, “that says if you throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain, you’ll come back to Rome. And if you throw it with someone, you’ll come back with them.” 

“Romantic,” Haru says, smiling just a little. He’d like to come back to Rome with Rin, he thinks. There’s not enough seafood for his liking, but it’s a pretty city, and they aren’t able to see much of it. Tomorrow both of them are headed back, Rin to Sydney and Haru to Tokyo, until they are able to meet again. Haru wouldn’t mind seeing more of it, as long as Rin is with him. 

Haru wants to see the world with Rin, after all, legend or no legend, coin or no coin. 

“Okay,” Haru says. Rin smiles, and it’s a small but genuine thing. He counts them off and when they throw their coins in they both land in the water with a splash.

**III. Gold Coast**

Their fight lingers in the air even though Rin’s gone, and Haru thinks that maybe he should go back to the hotel that his coach booked for him instead of staying at Rin’s apartment. But even though he’s angry, he doesn’t want to leave. 

That’s the thing. Haru doesn’t want to leave. So he stays where he is, stares at the coffee mug in front of him that’s filled with tea that he won’t drink, and wonders why this always happens. Why Rin always manages to bring out his emotions, even when Haru doesn’t want him to, even when Haru would rather smother everything instead of having them raw and ugly and open. 

Rin makes him care too much, Haru thinks. He makes him care too much and that’s why it hurts, that’s why they fight. They care too much, and know the other person can handle their feelings, even when sometimes it feels like it’s just too much. 

But if Haru’s learned anything, he’s learned that he can bear it, and that’s why he sits and stays. 

When the door opens with a click, Haru doesn’t turn around, even when the milk Rin said he’d buy--and actually, it seems, did buy--falls with a thud to the floor. 

“I’m sorry,” Rin says quietly, from behind Haru. Haru can feel his hesitation before he wraps his arms around Haru’s neck, leaning on the chair enough that Haru can feel some of his weight too. Haru reaches up and grabs his arms, leans his head back so that it’s resting on Rin’s shoulder. 

“Me too,” he says finally, and grips Rin’s arms even tighter. 

**IV. Rio de Janeiro**

“This is kind of embarrassing, isn’t it?” Rin asks, when Haru finishes tying the last knot. 

“No,” Haru says, and kisses him, soft and sweet but with an edge of heat. He almost misses the way Rin’s arms come around him when they kiss, but it’s gratifying to have Rin at his mercy. 

The metal of all of Rin’s medals gleam in the bit of sunset that escapes through the crack in the curtain, but Rin is what really captures Haru’s attention. Naked and bared for Haru to touch all he wants. And he _wants._

After they had both won their final races they had fucked, full of adrenaline and happiness. Rin even cried a little, and Haru had kissed his tears and gripped his hand even as they destroyed the bed. 

But today, Haru wants to take things slow. Take his time and savor the moment, the happiness that came from winning a gold medal together. 

“I love you,” Haru says when he lets Rin breathe. It’s not something that he puts into words very often, mostly because words always feel inadequate when it comes to his feelings for Rin. But Rin shudders when he says it, and Haru’s pretty sure that’s not just because Haru’s mouthing the skin behind his ear that he likes. 

“I love you too,” Rin says, and then gasps when Haru moves his hand lower. Haru knows. He knows. 

**V. Tokyo**

Rin only lets him run the water when they have over half of the boxes unpacked. “You’re ridiculous,” he says, but Haru knows that he’s happy for the break. Moving during the summer was a mistake, because it makes everything even more sweaty and miserable. 

Even with that, though, Haru’s glad. Their shared apartment--which is tiny and and unfortunately a long way from the train, but it was all they could afford--is proof that Rin is finally back in Japan. To stay this time, he promises. 

Haru’s glad that Rin has finally found absolution from Australia, but he’s even more glad that Rin is finally back where he belongs. 

Haru doesn’t bother to give Rin a response, just tugs on his wrist until Rin gets into the bath first, and Haru crawls in front of him. The bath is a tight fit, but it’s not uncomfortable. Haru knew the distance from the train station was worth the slightly bigger bath, and that’s being proved right at this moment as he leans back against Rin. 

Rin talks more about everything else that they have to do; how they are going to dinner with Makoto tonight and so they should at least finish unpacking by then, how the last of his stuff from Australia should be coming tomorrow so they had to go pick it up. He goes on and on but Haru closes his eyes, not really listening. Instead he concentrates on the hum of Rin’s voice, on the solid body behind his, and savors in his nearness. 

The rest of the world can wait, at least for a little while.


End file.
